Laptops Desktops Monitors & LCDs Graphics Cards Handhelds Phones Software Networks Printers More »
search
advertisement
Click Here.
AnchorDesk

John Morris and Josh Taylor
New Athlon-based PCs: At least the price is right

John Morris and Josh Taylor
Contributing Editors, AnchorDesk
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
TalkBack!Add your opinion
Just as there was no Triple Crown winner at the Belmont Stakes this weekend, AMD's announcement this week that it has released a new version of its Athlon processor won't make the chipmaker a big winner either.

Like the colt War Emblem, AMD surprised the industry a couple years back, seemingly coming out of nowhere to beat Intel in the race to a 1GHz desktop processor. But the company's improbable run was bound to come to an end, and it seems the Athlon is destined to do no better than show in a two-horse race.

That said, AMD is at the very least consistent. For the past couple of years, it's been repeating the "it's not the megahertz" mantra, focusing instead on providing solid value processors that are more than powerful enough for most users.

SUCH IS THE CASE with AMD's just-announced Athlon XP 2200+, which coincidentally is named Thoroughbred. The first Athlon desktop chip made using a smaller (0.13 micron) manufacturing process, the XP 2200+ is undoubtedly the fastest Athlon chip to date. (The company released the mobile version of the chip back in April.) But even AMD admits with its naming scheme that the 1.8GHz chip is designed to perform like a 2.2GHz Pentium 4. Meanwhile, Intel keeps unfurling faster versions of its flagship chip, now up to 2.53GHz.

AMD's press release also reminded us of an interesting side effect of the HP-Compaq merger: It has reduced the number of major U.S. manufacturers using Athlons in desktops to just one, though the combined entity still maintains two separate consumer lines, Pavilion and Presario. A system from neither line was available in time for a review (though CNET Labs benchmarked a Compaq Presario 8000Z), so our team instead reviewed systems from ABS and MicronPC.

The $1,949 ABS Awesome 3300 largely lives up to its name. It comes with 512MB DDR memory, two 60GB hard drives, 16X DVD and 40X CD-RW drives, a 128MB Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4600 graphics card, and a 15-inch LCD display. The MicronPC XP+ Professional has more modest aspirations, with 256MB of DDR SDRAM, two 40GB drives, 16X DVD and 24X CD-RW drives, a 32MB integrated Nvidia nForce graphics chipset, and a 17-inch CRT. But it only costs $1,299--an impressive price for a system with AMD's flagship processor.

In tests conducted by ZDNet Labs, these Thoroughbred-based systems were only slightly faster than desktops with the older 1.74GHz Athlon XP 2100 (aka Palomino). One of the primary reasons is that Thoroughbred still has the same 256K external cache (L2) as the previous generation, while newer Pentium 4-based systems now have twice as much. Aside from the under-powered MicronPC XP+ Professional, the XP 2200+ systems we tested were competitive with PCs equipped with a 2.26GHz P4 and similar configurations on both productivity applications and 3D games. But they still can't keep up with the fastest P4s.

IF THE ATHLON isn't the fastest in the land, it still offers a compelling value. For the sake of comparison, we quickly configured a Dell Dimension 8200 with a 2.26GHz P4, 512MB RDRAM, 120GB hard drive, 16X DVD and 40X CD-RW drives, a 128MB Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4600 graphics card, and a 15-inch LCD display--virtually identical specs to the ABS Awesome 3300. The Dimension 8200 cost about $575 more, yet you should get roughly the same level of performance from either system.

The only significant difference is that the P4 architecture leaves more room to grow with its faster memory and 533MHz system bus, but these will really only matter for high-end tasks such as professional image editing, digital video, programming, and working with very large databases.

Ultimately, we base our buying decisions more on the PC manufacturer than what's inside. We take into account customer service, system reliability, and whether or not the company is likely to be around two years from now. So to us, AMD's biggest challenge isn't that its chips aren't as fast as Intel's--they're close enough for most of us--but rather that there are so few system choices available from the big players.

Athlon may not be the first to the finish line, but it should prove a good bet for value-minded consumers--especially those willing to buy from second- and third-tier vendors.

Does brand name matter to you when buying a PC? Or are you simply looking for the most features and performance you can get for the price? TalkBack to us!

Previous Story  Next Story 

Special sponsor stores
advertisement
Click Here